Stand By Me Critique

In the third unit of the course Ollywood, we studied post-production and different ways to approach a film critique. Post-production includes music, sound effects, editing, and special effects. For our action project we had to make a podcast of a movie review, I chose the to critique the movie "Stand By Me" because I like the song and because I like journey movies. Through out this project I had difficulty choosing an approach and finding extra information. I learned different approaches to critique a film and how to use one.



Hello everyone! Thank you for tuning into my review of Stand By Me, its a Drama/ Adventure film inspired by a Stephen King novella. The director of this film is Rob Reiner and it was released on August 8,1986, The film stars River Phoenix who plays Chris Chambers, Will Wheaton who plays Gordie Lachance, Corey Feldman who plays Teddy Duchamp, and Jerry O’Connell who plays Vern Tessio.

I will critique the movie through a genetic approach. This approach follows the film through all stages of its creation and release which means I will be reviewing the film for elements of pre-production, production, and post-production.

The film is based on a short story called “The Body” by Stephen King. Stand By Me is narrated by Gordie Lachance who is writing a book about an adventure that he had with his three closest friends when he was 12 years old. Gordie along with Teddy, Chris and Vern embarked on a journey to find a dead body. The journey is emotional for all of the boys, especially for Gordie who learned that his best friend, Chris was capable of looking after him like his older brother Dennis,who passed away in an accident.

I will start by critiquing the use of set design, location, and cinematography. The movie is set in Castle Rock, a fictional town in Oregon created by Rob Reiner. Many of Stephen King’s novels that became movies used the set of Castle Rock because King liked how Reiner created the set. Many of the scenes were shot in different locations throughout Oregon and many of them had little value. The set designers and Rob Reiner created mostly everything that we saw on screen including the train tracks that the boys guide themselves through.

An example of this would be the tracks, they were actually just a dirt path to which the set-design crew added train tracks. One of my favorite scenes happens sometime in the middle of their journey and the boys find themselves on an elevated train track as a train is approaching. Chris and Teddy get to the other side, while the speeding train appears to be inches from Gordie and Vern who are running as fast as they can. This scene was very realistic and very suspenseful, even though the train was actually very far away from the two actors. Through the use of a 60omm long-focus lens, the cinematographers made the train appear much closer than it actually was.

There was a recurring prop and action from the actors that really stood out to me. Throughout the film, the 12-year-old boys are often seen smoking. Even though, the smoking was something that appeared in the background, it was important in telling the story of what young boys do when unsupervised. When watching the film, I was surprised that the young actors were directed to smoke. But, Rob Reiner, the director is actually an anti-smoker. The cigarettes were made from cabbage leaves. I thought the actors did a good job in the scenes they smoke because I believed they were actually smoking. I believed it because their faces expressed that if the adults can smoke then they can too.

I am going to critique the use of film-cuts used in the film. At the start of their journey, Gordie goes to the store to buy food for his friends before starting their journey. After picking up the snacks, we see Gordie run back to the junkyard to find his friends jumping the fence of the junkyard. The scene starts with us looking at Gordie standing in the junkyard and through the use of the look-off film cut, the scene cuts to three friends climbing the fence. We see the scene through Gordie’s eyes, as if we’ve become Gordie in that moment and we can feel his disappointment with his friends for leaving him behind.

I really liked the scene where the young group of friends are on the train tracks walking, they put on the radio and the song Lollipop comes on. Vern and Teddy are ahead of Gordie and Chris. Vern has the radio so as soon as the song starts playing they make a choreography. Two steps to the right advancing and two steps left and when the pop sound happens they do it too, then continue doing the same thing. I thought that in this scene the actors did a good job in portraying their youth because they are not only going to see a dead body but they are spending time together as friends and discovering more who they are. Also this shows that kids can be fun, joke around, and express a little of themselves in acting.

Another prime example of the quality of acting and directing was in a scene when the group of boys are about halfway through their journey. In the campfire scene the boys are taking turns keeping watch for coyotes while the others sleep. When it was Chris turn to keep watch Gordie was having a nightmare so he woke up and kept watch with Chris.

Chris started telling Gordie how everyone think he is a thief and that when things go missing they blame him because of his family’s reputation. But he is not like that and he starts crying and saying that he want to go to a place where nobody knows him so he can start fresh. When filming this scene Chris faked cry but Reiner knew he could do better so he asked him to think of a time in his own life when an adult has let him down and use it.

Chris did but his emotions were too strong that the director had to comfort him after the scene was done. This shows that the actor put lots of his own emotions to the movie and also it shows that he actually relates to the character he is playing.

Also in this scene an effective film cut was when Gordie was telling a story he created to his friends about people bullied an overweight kid and how he got revenge. This scene used dialogue referent cut, the scene starts with Gordie starting to tell the storie then it cuts to the main character planning his revenge. I felt like that was a good cut because it made me see what the main character was doing and how his revenge ended up with everyone vomiting on each other.

Mostly all the music the director put in the movie was coming from the radio that Vern brought for their journey and they were just popular songs from that time like the songs Lollipop, Come go with me, Let the good times roll, and more. The only songs that didn't come from the radio was the song Stand by me and some instrumentals. The song Stand By Me would play when mostly every time they continue their journey. I also notice that when they played the song it would be different like it still has the same beat but something is added. The instrumentals would only play when dramatic things happened.

I give this movie 4.5 stars because it took me on a journey and it kept things real like the older guys bullied the younger ones and the way the actors acted. I liked it a lot and I recommend watching this movie especially if you like seeing calm adventure movies. Well thank you for listening my film review! Bye!

Courageous Film Critique!

In the second unit of the course Olllywood, we studied production and how critiques review movies. For this we watch Siskel and Ebert do a critique show, they also told us the rules they have for themselves to critique a movie and the most important rule is to be courageous, say what you want but also give the movie a chance. For our action project we had to do a similar video to what Siskel and Ebert did, meaning making a video that is like a show. Once we knew what we had to do we were assigned partners and we got to choose a movie that we would like to critique. Me and my partner chose BeetleJuice by Tim Burton. During this project I had a little difficulty in editing the video because I needed to be precise. I learned how to add images to my movie.

KS & ZP Movie Critique from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.

"BeetleJuice." Put Locker. N.p. Web. November 28.

Suppli

In our Elective term, in the course Fare we studied Italian along with learning how to cook Italian food. We have learned so much Italian worlds and learned so many dishes.  For our project we made a video of us saying who we are,  how we are doing, where we are from, how old I am, what languages I speak and also we will present a dished that we liked cooking in class. I chose Suppli because its delicios and easy to make. So with that we will mention the ingredients that go into it. Also we will present a friend. This class is really fun so far. I am proud of how I learned Italian fast.

Back to The Future Review

In the first unit of the course Ollywood, we studied pre production. Ollywood is a film critique class. We are studying the elements necessary in order to create a great movie. The first unit studies the screenplay, costume design, set design, lighting, and location scouting. For our first action project, we critiqued a film that was considered to have great elements of pre-production. I chose to critique Back to The Future because I have seen it before. Throughout this project, I learned how to write an effective movie critique. I am proud of the research I did for this critique.

Back to The future. 2014

Back To The Future is a 1985 American comic science-fiction film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The screenplay was rejected many times by the studios until Steven Spielberg took the opportunity and helped them produce it. The lead actors are Michael J. Fox, Christopher lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The actor Fox, who played Marty McFly had some difficulties in making the movie because he was filming a show called Family Ties at the same time and the producers of the show wouldn't let him film the movie. Eric Stoltz was cast to play Marty McFly but as time went they realized that he was a miscast. so Fox was called back in and this time he worked out time management with the show so he was able to do both.            

The movie was released on July 3, 1985 and became the most successful film of the year. It cost 19 million dollars to produce the film,but the end it was worth it because the film grossed more than 383 million dollars. For the great effort in making the movie, the movie won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, and the Academy Award for Best Sound Effect Editing.

Back to the Future is based in 1985 in Hill Valley, a fictional town in California. Hill Valley is a small, residential town with a high school. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is our protagonist, a 17-year old who dresses like any 80’s rebellious, skateboarding teenager dressed in jeans, Nike shoes, a maroon shirt, a square pattern button-up shirt, a jean jacket, and an orange vest. Marty’s desire is to get back home to 1985 after he accidentally time-travels in a car, the Delorean to 1955. While he is stuck in 1955, he runs into trouble by having interrupted his parents’ meeting and the timeline of history. In order to make both time periods believable, the production and costume designers had to pay close attention to details. For example, the high school set in 1955 was believable because there were checkered-tiles on the floor. The costumes also reflected the 1950s style with the girls dressed in square-pattern skirts with button-up shirts and the boys wore khakis with button-up shirts and blazers.

Throughout the movie Marty always said “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” Marty was inspired to say this quote by his dad because his dad alway said it, although he doesn't set his mind to accomplishing higher goals. Marty’s obstacle was a person...Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), our antagonist. Biff is a big, buff, rich and he is a bully. Since Biff was a bully he would always tell people “ What you lookin’ ar, butthead?” when people try to stop his bullying.

A brief summary of the movie Back to The Future, Marty's desire had two desires one was that he wants to get his parents fall in love again because he interfered with their meeting so by that he and his siblings won't exist. His other desire was that he wants to get back to his time 1985 because he accidentally traveled back to 1955. It all started when “Doc” (an scientist inventor) invented a time travel car with a DeLorean DMC-12. He showed Marty at 1:06 am at the twin pines mall parking lot. Two mad terrorist attacked them and killed Doc. Marty panicked so he got on the car and tried to get rid of the terrorist by going fast. The thing was that if the car goes more that 85 miles then it would travel to the date that is indicated on the display board, the date was 1955 where Doc came up with the machine the would make the car travel. So he traveled back in time and for trying to look for Doc in 1955 he accidentally met his dad and followed him. His dad was spying on a girl on a tree when he accidentally fell and was going to get run over but Marty saved his dad from the car accident but he actually interfered with his parents meeting because his mom told him how she met his father when her dad almost ran over his dad and they took him inside and thats where they met and fell in love. Now Marty must have his journey in finding and convince Doc that he is from the future and that he needs help from him to get back. He also needs to get (his dad) George to become brave, for his mother to fall in love with George instead of him. The climax was on the day of the dance (where his parents are suppose to kiss and fall in love) he sets his parents up but then Biff interferes locks Marty inside of a truck. Biff tries to abuse Lorien when George sees her and he stands up to Biff. In that moment Lorien falls in love with George and enter the dance as dates. The resolution of this intriguing movie was that after a few dances Lorraine and George kissed and stayed together, by them kissing they kept their children's existence (from the future) Marty was able to get his parents back together and he was late to his meeting with the his future time. When Marty got back his family changed because his family was rich the reason why was because since his father stood up for him self he didn't let Biff determine his future which he did in the beginning of the movie.

My favorite scene would be at the end when Marty makes plans with George so he can ask Lorraine to the dance. The plan was that Marty would bother Lorraine and George would come and hit Marty to stop bothering her. When he was going to bother Lorine Biff came punched Marty and locked him in a trunk and Biff started to harraz Lorraine. George came along and was going to proceed with the plan, he opened the door of the car and said:

George- Hey you get your damn hands of…

But as soon as he saw that it was Biff and not Marty he hesitated.

Biff- I think you got the wrong car Mcfly.

Lorraine- George help me please

Biff- Just turn around Mcfly and walk away. Are you deaf Mcfly close the door and beat it.

George- No Biff you leave her alone.

Biff- Alright Mcfly. You're asking for it and now your going to get it.

Mcfly tries to punch Biff but fail and he torches him. Lorraine tries to intervene but also fail and Biff throws her to the grown. Thats when George get courage and punches Biff by surprise and knocks him down.

This was my favorite scene because George was able to stand up and not let Biff bully him anymore and other people. Meaning that people should not be afraid of an obstacle or let anyone bully them, stand up and fight for yourself. Also because this was the part where Lorraine had a beautiful pink fluffy dress and George was cleaned up with a white tuxedo. Reflecting on the dialogue of this movie I think that the dialogue is believable because Bullies always try to act tough and by acting tough they say mean things and have attitude. Of Course the person that is being bullied won't say nothing because they are usually the people that are shy and don't talk much, so they won't defend themselves.